Two Lodi men stuck in Pakistan

Family relation to Hayats keeps pair exiled until they talk to FBI

LODI - Two U.S. citizens related to a Lodi man convicted of aiding terrorists are in virtual exile because federal authorities won't let them return from Pakistan until they submit to FBI lie-detector tests.

LODI - Two U.S. citizens related to a Lodi man convicted of aiding terrorists are in virtual exile because federal authorities won't let them return from Pakistan until they submit to FBI lie-detector tests.

Now, four months after they were barred from flying to the United States, Muhammad Ismail, 45, and Jaber Ismail, 18, have turned to the American Civil Liberties Union's legal clout to help them return to their Lodi home. The ACLU filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Aug. 9 claiming the Ismails are being denied their civil rights.

Usama Ismail, whose brother and father are on the government's list of passengers barred from air travel, said Monday that he advised them not to talk to the FBI. Interviews with agents last year led to the arrests of his cousin Hamid Hayat and uncle Umer Hayat on terrorism-related charges. The stranded Ismails - the elder a naturalized citizen and the younger born in the United States - have not been charged with any crime.

Usama Ismail, 20, said an FBI agent involved in last year's Lodi terrorism investigation called from Pakistan asking him to persuade his brother to talk.

"I said, 'You guys screwed my uncle over, and now you want to screw my brother over?'" Ismail said. "They're treating them like foreigners or something. What's the point of being a citizen?"

Experts in constitutional law contacted Monday said the Ismails' predicament is rare if not unprecedented. And they said they don't see that the government has a legal basis to keep the Lodi men from coming home.

"There has to be a due-process issue here," said John Sims, a professor at the McGeorge School of Law. "You can't say someone can't fly with the consequence they can't return to their country of citizenship without proving they did something or are likely to do something."

Law professor Charles Weisselberg at the University of California, Berkeley, said that if the FBI is concerned the Ismails may pose a threat to air traffic, rather than banning them from travel they could be screened closely before boarding an airplane.

"It is normal when somebody arrives at the border to be subjected to questioning and see if they're holding contraband," Weisselberg said. "But to say they wouldn't be allowed in without lie-detector tests is extreme."

The ACLU's complaint states the Ismails are being denied their right to travel and enter their home country and demands the government remove them from the no-fly list and let them return home.

"It's stunning. It's outrageous that the government is conditioning these folks' right to return to the United States upon giving up their right to remain silent," said Julia Harumi Mass, an attorney for the ACLU in San Francisco. "If the government had any real evidence against them, these people could be charged with a crime instead of being held hostage in a foreign land."

Mass said Drew Parenti, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Sacramento office, confirmed that he was behind the request to prevent the Ismails from returning unless they agreed to questioning. Mass said Parenti would not say what gave him that authority.

Parenti's office referred questions Monday to FBI spokeswoman Karen Ernst, who declined to comment, because the matter is under investigation. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Sacramento referred questions to the Department of Homeland Security, which did not return a call Monday.

Mass said the Department of Homeland Security told her it was investigating the ACLU's complaint.

The Ismails are close relatives as well as neighbors of the Hayats. Hamid Hayat, 23, was convicted April 25 of supporting terrorists by attending a paramilitary training camp in Pakistan in 2003 and 2004. His father, originally charged with lying about his firsthand knowledge of terrorist camps, pleaded guilty to a count of lying about the amount of money he was taking to Pakistan in 2003. Umer Hayat, 48, was freed Friday, sentenced to time served.

During his interview with FBI agents, Hamid Hayat said several of his Lodi cousins had trained at jihadist training camps in Pakistan, including Jaber Ismail. Usama Ismail, also named in that confession, said those statements are false.

The Ismails were flying back to the United States from Pakistan on April 21 when they were turned back from boarding a Korean Air Lines flight in Hong Kong to the United States. They tried flying back again two weeks later but were told at the airport in Islamabad, Pakistan, that they were on the U.S. government's no-fly list, according to the ACLU's complaint.

An FBI agent interviewed Jaber Ismail at the U.S. Embassy the next week, then asked him to submit to more questioning. After that, he was asked to submit to a lie-detector test, according to the ACLU complaint. The appointment was canceled.

"After several more weeks passed, the FBI agent called Jaber Ismail and told him that he needed to submit to further interrogation in order to 'clear up' the situation before he would be permitted to return to the United States," the complaint states.

Usama Ismail said his brother and father have only limited knowledge of the Hayat case, because they don't discuss the matter by phone.